Trader who cheated Citibank out of $42M banned

The federal government has ordered a commodities trader who lost Citibank more than $42 million to pay a $500,000 fine and banned him from trading in the near future.

John Aaron Brooks, who worked for Citibank from November 2010 through October 2011, schemed to conceal trading losses from ethanol futures, a court found.

ADVERTISEMENT

Brooks was a commodities trading director at Citigroup, where he illegally inflated the value of his position in ethanol to mask losses, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The ruling comes after the CFTC filed charges against Brooks last September for violating federal anti-fraud laws.

The commission announced Monday that the court is upholding the fine and banning him from trading in the near future. The court will also ban Brooks from ever again registering with the CFTC, and prohibit him for the next several years from trading any CFTC-regulated products.

"At the end of each trading day, Brooks knew or recklessly disregarded the fact that he was entering false values for ethanol futures into Citi's computer system," the CFTC said.